Walker County Messenger

Six Heritage swimmers headed to state this weekend

- By Scott Herpst

A total of six Heritage High School swimmers will head to Georgia Tech this upcoming weekend to compete in the GHSA State Championsh­ips.

The athletes qualified in six different events in Saturday’s North Georgia High School Regional Meet at Dalton.

The foursome of Lexi Easley, Saulye Nichols, Reagan Wingrove and Hannah Smith qualified by winning the 200-yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:48.03. Easley, Wingrove, Smith and Rylee O’Donnell also qualified in the 200yard medley relay after finishing second with a 2:05.22.

Individual­ly, Smith won the 50yard freestyle in 25.77 seconds to punch her ticket to state and she also won the 100-yard freestyle, clocking in at 56.28, to earn a spot next weekend.

The other state qualifier was on the boys’ side was Pierce Lively, who will swim in the 100-yard breaststro­ke and the 100-yard butterfly at state. Lively was second in the breaststro­ke event (1:02.53) and third in the butterfly (56.23).

The Lady Generals had several more top five finishes on the day. Easley was second in the 100 freestyle (59.64) and third in the 50 freestyle (27.27). Nichols was third in the 200 freestyle (2:12.36) and Wingrove took third in the finals of the 100 breaststro­ke (1:17.25).

Nichols also placed third in the 500 freestyle (5:52.88), while she teamed up with Abigail Dodd, Sydney Wilson and Emma Connelly to place fourth in the 200 medley relay (2:13.78). O’Donnell, Dodd, Wilson and Connelly were fifth in the 500 freestyle relay (1:59.22).

The only top five finisher for the Ringgold Lady Tigers was Alex Van Alstine, who placed second in the 100-yard backstroke (1:11.65) . However, her time was not enough to qualify for state.

Heritage placed third in the girls’ team standings with 132 points, behind Calhoun (255) and Dalton (162). Ringgold (32) was eighth in the 10-team field.

The Heritage boys tied Coahulla Creek for sixth with 34 points. Calhoun (268) held off Dalton (250) for the top spot, while Northwest Whitfield (106) was a distant third. Ringgold did not compete in the boys’ meet.

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